The Effect
by Vademm rerogi
Summary: "Sooo… Feel like committing mass murder for the sole purpose of flipping the middle finger to a millennia-old prophecy?" "How else are you supposed to spend Monday nights?" [2 oc's]
1. Soooo

Deep In the endless void of space, an ancient station rests. The station's farms were long overgrown with weeds, the glass walkways cracked, and computers endlessly rebooting after their attendants died long ago.

The hydroponics farms of station Alpha-0Z14 rustled with movement. As the oxygen requirements of the area went up, fans strained to meet the requirements. As the overseers of the farms slacked off, paying it no mind, something entirely unnatural was forming in the confines of the farm. Cells met in an orb of biomass, before slowly forming into a humanoid shape. First, only basic features and organs were visible, but within seconds the full details of a face, clothing, and other features were entirely formed in the cool, controlled environment of the farm.

Across the station, an equally remarkable event took place, just as unnoticed. A young Turian man stepped out from what seemed to be a hole in the thin air. He took a deep breath in, hearing the wheeze of his gas mask, dusting off his dark blue suit and adjusting his orange tie, before glancing around the room, seeing no one, and strolling over to the door of the room.

The being in the hydroponics farm cracked his neck, feeling the nerves twist and the bones lock into place. He searched for a door, and upon finding one, casually forced open the hydraulic doors keeping him in. He began to walk away before his eyes widened and he realized something. He turned around, picked up a pair of latex gloves sitting on a surgical tray, and followed the signs pointing to the station's bacterial laboratory.

The being in the suit exchanged his gas mask for a pair of blue-framed glasses, the mask disappearing exactly as its wearer appeared. He took a deep breath, centering himself. His body seemed to slightly vibrate in space, but as he exhaled, the vibration stopped, at least a little. His finger tapped his coat pocket nervously as he walked past a guard. He quickly scrambled for the ID card he'd appropriated earlier- It's a wonder what a little breaking and entering can do for you. The guard nodded and gestured towards the door. As the being in the suit praised the universe for his luck, he quickly started walking to a set of doors with an awful lot of noise coming through from the other side.

The being from the farm stepped coolly through the facility. By now, his clothing had morphed into a lab coat, a faux ID card hanging from its pocket. As he walked past a clock, he realized how much time he had for what he came here for. He picked up his pace, heading for the lab's vaults.

The suited being threw open the double doors to a sterile, clinical meeting room. A man sat at the front, clearly full of himself and his achievement. The being sat down, taking a quick count of how many potential threats he'd have to deal with. Then double-counting. Then triple-counting. At the seventh count, the man at the front stood up.

"Distinguished clients of the Chorus Corporation," the man started as the presentation screen behind him began to come online, "Imagine, if you will: A world where the terrorists, the criminals, the wretches of society… Are gone." The being couldn't help but to scoff internally. 'Idiots. You're just as bad as these "wretches." Pff.' The being laid back as he zoned out through the explanation- Something about DNA pairing, genetic targeting, and of course this power to kill anyone with impunity would never be misused.

The being in the labcoat rifled through the cryo-storage units in the lab's vault, searching for his target. Finally, he opened a unit to see a note: COMPOUND X-232 MOVED FOR PRESENTATION. The being started to panic as he ran towards the station's meeting room.

The being in the suit tapped his fingers on his knee impatiently. 'We get it, you're a gifted biologist', the being thought, 'now stop jerking off your ego and give us what we came here for!' As if on command, two lab technicians opened a door at the other end of the meeting room, pushing a cart. The cart had a large incubator, with tubes and lamps twisting all around the device while white steam blew out from the dry-ice cooling systems. A digital temperature gauge showed the incubator rested at an even 99.1 degrees Fahrenheit. Inside the incubator was a small vial, filled with a thick, clear substance.

"This," said the scientist at the front, "Is how we will achieve our goals. With this bacterium, any criminal can be subdued, any dictator can be assassinated… Any competition can be… Dealt with."

The being in the suit narrowed his eyes and focused on the incubator, his hand slowly reaching inside his coat pocket. As his fingers slipped behind his lapel, something altogether surprising interrupted his train of thought. A man wearing a labcoat sprung from the door, pushing the two lab technicians out of the way. He stood protectively in front of the incubator, getting ready to speak. At first, the being in the suit was confused- The person in the lab coat seemed oddly… Familiar. Then it clicked in his brain, and the being in the suit rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Customers," the one in the labcoat said, "I'm afraid that I cannot allow you to continue this presentation… For you see," the one in the labcoat said with a mischievous grin, "This organism is about to… Breach containment."

The attendees all gasped, save the one in the suit. The two security guards in the room drew their weapons as three more entered through the door. Vines crept around the walls of the room, grabbing three guards by the neck and impaling the other two. An alarm blared as blast doors could be heard slamming shut across the station. Marching footsteps could be heard as the being in the labcoat morphed his clothes into a cloak and a sword seemingly grew out of his arm. The being in the cloak began to make a speech to the attendees before the one in the suit had enough.

"Oh, for shit's sake, GET ON WITH IT!" The being in the suit pulled a customized black Carnifex pistol from his suit coat, shining its targeting laser on the one in the cloak's leg before firing a high-powered particle stream into it, stepping onto the table, and taking off his glasses.  
"Alright, people, listen up," yelled the being in the suit, said as he put his gas mask back on, "This isn't how I was planning on doing this, but hey, spice of life, right? Anyway, this little project that you've got going on here is pretty obviously bogus, considering that I don't see one person here who doesn't have some kind of criminal charge, so I'll just be taking this," he said as he pulled a blowtorch out of his coat, "And making sure you fucks don't ruin the global balance of power." The being in the suit jumped down before feeling a vine tug on his leg. The being in the cloak got up and started walking over to the incubator.

"Wow. Just wow. It just amazes me what kind of people think they can challenge me." The being in the cloak looked to the door as a team of heavily-armored security guards came through the door, guns readied. "Take these schmucks, for example," he said as he seemingly dissolved and, seconds later, grew out of the vines to slash at a guard, seemingly being able to take every bullet the group selectively fired at him. He danced between the guards, growing another sword out of his other arm and beheading, dismembering, and overall maiming every guard he could see. As he stepped out of the carnage, covered in blood, he stopped in shock.

The being in the suit, leaning on the cart, was standing there with a blowtorch flaring directly into the incubator and onto the vial. The tubes and cooling system of the device was smashed, as the temperature gauge beeped, unreadable after being cracked severely. The substance inside the vial boiled before steam built up in the vial, eventually cracking and bursting open to send glass shards everywhere. Every attendee of the meeting laid, shot through the head, on the table or slumped in their chairs. The being in the suit, now having put away his gas mask and returned to his glasses, had an aggravatingly smug expression on his face as he put the blowtorch back into his suit pocket (where, oddly, it seemed to disappear- No bulge of any sort appeared in the suit) and walked to the center of the room, gun drawn and fully loaded.

The being in the cloak walked to meet him, swords at his side, ready to strike. As the two eyed each other, assessing the other's weight, height, and physical characteristics, the one in the suit laughed, put his gun back into his suit coat, and stuck out his hand.

"Hell, it's about time." say the one in the cloak and he too stuck out his hand and shook the other man's hand.

"Heh, it's been awhile, huh Hellstat?" says the one in the suit.

"Far too long, Quark," Hellstat said with a chuckle.

"Soooooo, seen the new episode of Doctor Who?"

Quark smirked. "Seen it? I've looked at every possibility that possibly could have come of it! I literally watched the version of it where everything's a porno and they have 'Safe-For-Work Parodies' of everything!"

Hellstat raised an eyebrow. "Every episode? Doesn't that seem a bit… Overkill?"

Quark rolled his eyes playfully. "Everything I do is overkill to you! Watching every possible version of a show? 'Overkill.' Assassinating Stalin by smothering him in the womb? 'Overkill.' Convincing the US that bombing Hiroshima is humane, just so I have a blast to create a portal to as a backup weapon? 'Overkill!' You need to lighten up, dude."

Hellstat sighed. "Listen dude, we really need to have a talk about this..." Just as about Quark was to rebuttal, a very loud alarm sounded off. This caused both Quark and Hellstat to grin like madmen.

Hellstat glanced at Quark as he walked over to the door, stepping over the pile of corpses he'd created minutes ago. "Sooo… Feel like committing mass murder for the sole purpose of flipping the middle finger to a multi-trillion-credit megacorporation?"

Quark smirked. "What other way are you supposed to spend Tuesday nights?"

*queue Ready to Die by Andrew W.K*

Thus The effects of Science! Take play.

|chapter 1 end|

 **A/N: This was co-written with Jeff (my best bud) And well... this is most what we'd act like given super powers and as Jeff would say. don't give us super powers.**


	2. Memories

Quark strolled up to the server room door of the station, locked shut from a blast door. He playfully knocked on the metal door. "Anyone home?" He lovingly glanced at his Carnifex as he ejected its thermal clip. "How rude of them to not invite in a guest. Think we should teach 'em some manners?" Quark swiped his ID card into the slot next to the door, causing the panel to cheerfully beep and the door to open. Almost instantly, flashes of blue light sped towards him.

Quark felt himself desynchronize from his current timestream. To him, the flashes of C-fractional-speed particles from the station guards' guns slowed to almost a standstill. Quark weaved through these bolts, dodging each of them like they were nothing, running towards the guards before coming at arm's length. He then fired his Carnifex, point-blank, directly at the forehead of the lead guard.

As the two guards beside him reacted, he went to work, first turning and kicking the guard to his left into the adjacent wall, before grabbing the guard's gun as it fell and emptying its clip into the third and final guard. As he dropped the weapon and reloaded his Carnifex, he strolled over to the server access terminal. The entire engagement, to the rest of the world, had lasted no more than six seconds.

As Quark gained access to the servers, he heard Hellstat walk into the room behind him. As Hellstat retracted his swords, he looked around at the room. He was covered, head to toe, in blood.

"Come on, man, there, like, a hundred mercenaries just begging to be shot! It's like that time in the First World Bank, only a million times more awesome, a- Quark?"

Hellstat walked up behind Quark, who was staring blankly at the terminal. He wasn't moving, aside from what appeared to be heaving breaths. As Hellstat approached, he saw Quark's eyes, glazed over, not tracking anything. Hellstat hesitantly put a hand on Quark's shoulder.

"Quark? Are you alri-"

Quark immediately inhaled with terror, whipped around, and smacked Hellstat in the eye with the handle of his pistol, before realizing what he'd done and stopping to help him. Hellstat glared at Quark, as the bone fragments in his face audibly snapped back into their places. Quark holstered his pistol and put his hands up, gesturing to the terminal.

"Okay, so I had a hunch about that virus those guys were researching-"

Hellstat, still angry from being hit, took the opportunity to let out his frustration.

"Thanks for that, by the way. You know, I was going to _absorb_ that. Make us never have to kill anyone ourselves again, make life easy, you know?! And you just went and-"

Quark raised his voice. "Dude, calm the fuck down. So, as I was saying, there isn't a board of directors in the galaxy that would approve that damn thing. Someone was funding it, someone with the resources to cover it up and pin it on Chorus, and, well… Just look at what I found."

Hellstat took a deep breath and calmed himself. "Alright, but this better be something bi-"

Hellstat stopped mid-sentence as he saw four words amidst the others, words that stuck out to him like a sore thumb.

 _Anti-Reaper Contingency Program._

 _22 Years Ago_

Quark laid on his pristine cell's bed, the harsh white light strips above illuminating the room. He laid on his stomach, legs crossed, on his pillow a tablet containing half a bookshelf of novels, granted to him for good behavior. As he itched the area around the nutrient-tube plug in his stomach, he heard the cell door open. He began to sit up and stand almost instinctively, beginning to smile as he did.

"Doctor Aerin! Got any new books fo-"

Quark stopped, his face changing to one of confusion. Instead of the Turian scientist who had made him in a test tube, contributed his own DNA, and raised him as a son, in front of him was an Asari in combat armor, the only visible part of her through her hazmat helmet's clear faceplate. Quark began to speak.

"Where's Doctor Aerin? He's been checking up on me since I was bor-"

"And how long was that? Three weeks?" The Asari chuckled. "As for that doctor, he's been… Relocated. We find that it's better for our scientists to not get attached to the clones, especially when they're so…" The Asari searched for the word. "Expendable."

Quark, for the first time, felt a strange emotion in him. He thought he recalled reading about it in a book, a burning dislike of someone.

Hatred. Specifically, hatred for the program he'd been born into, the one that saw fit to take away his dad in one fell swoop.

"Come on," the Asari said to get Quark's attention. "It's time to use you for your real purpose."

Quark followed the Asari down the hallway to a massive dome. Quark wouldn't bet on it, but he could have sworn that he saw something massive causing the floor itself to rise up from the abyss. He glanced to his side, only to jump in surprise as he saw another… Thing… Next to him. This thing turned towards him, before its gelatinous form collapsed in on itself, forming a human. "Hey, there. Name's Hellstat."

Quark hesitantly stuck out his hand to shake Hellstat's. "Quark," he said, looking around the dome. Before he could ask any more questions, an alarm blared throughout the facility.

" _Attention All Personnel. Baseline Combat Evaluation of Specimens ARC-T032 and ARC-B153 is now in progress. Security Personnel are advised to proceed to Testing Sphere 15 for observation and retrieval."_

Quark looked around as a deafening grinding rumbled the ground around him. "What's happening?!"

Hellstat smirked. "Well apparently we are going to fight some shit, or each other maybe? Eh, the hell if I know." Quark could only sweatdrop as Hellstat merely shrugged. Quark took several deep breaths before hearing the roar of a Varren pouncing towards him.

Hellstat gave a low whistle. "Damn. It's been… How long?"

Quark shuddered. "22 years," he said solemnly. "I can still remember the day we met in that combat dome."

"So, wait… You think Chorus was the head of that?"

Quark immediately waved his hand dismissively. "No, if anything they were a collaborator. But the ARC Program was _much_ bigger than just one company. I've got records linking to Dah'Tan, Nashan, the ExoGeni… Just about every major company in the Galaxy."

Hellstat's eyes widened

"Ohhhhhhhh shit." Hellstat then smirked wickedly, "sssooooooo, wan-"

Quark held his hand up, his solemn expression giving way to some sarcasm. "But wait, there's more! That virus you were dead-set on absorbing'? It's called Specimen ARC-B343 in these files. And development started _just last year._ "

Hellstat's Grin fell instantly into a grimace. "So, wait… This means-"

Quark nodded. "The ARC program is back up. And if it's back up…"

"...It's back up for a reason."

Quark and Hellstat both walked to the hangar in silence. During their walk, Hellstat couldn't help but wonder. Why were they created? And what for? Sure he and Quark both knew that the damn company was…. Less than ethical, and that they were to destroy a " _Reaper",_ but the question still remained. Why would the galaxies biggest companies and Nations put _so_ much money into their creation? And what is a "Reaper"?

As the penultimate Varren suffocated from Hellstat's choking vines, he heard a growl from behind him, followed by the sharp crack of a pistol firing. Hellstat turned around to see a Varren corpse slide to a halt at his feet, a bullet hole straight through its head. Looking past the corpse, Quark phased in and out of existence before solidifying, his hands shaking, holding the pistol with the iron grip of a terrified child. He collapsed to his knees near the Varren, and as Hellstat approached him, he looked up at his new- and only- friend.

"I need to get out of here."

Hellstat grinned as he put a hand on Quark's shoulder. "That's the plan, kid… That's the plan." Hellstat helped Quark up, but as they passed by the dead varren, Hellstat stopped next to and put his hand on its head.

"Do you know about the dog who got his head cut off by Russians?" he asked Quark.

Quark shrugged. "Sure. Happened on Earth, biology's shown that things can be revived if their brain can be restored. Why?"

Hellstat motioned to Quark to come over. As he did, Quark saw tendrils erupting from Hellstat's hand, seeping into the varren's bullet wound and sealing it up. The Varren twitched, before it started moving in gradually more significant ways. Quark began to hear Bones snapping and flesh tearing, and he wondered what Hellstat was doing to it.

Hellstat patted the corpse as this happened. The Varren then got up. It stared straight at them then it opened its mouth, baring its teeth and looking quizzically at Hellstat, waiting for a command. "Because I think I just found our way out of this gulag."

|Chapter 2 End|


End file.
